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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

As we entered Ellora Caves we took a ticket at Rs.10 per
head and Rs.10 for rickshaw parking and then headed off to see the caves.

Our driver called out to us and said to us, Checkout cave
no. 1 first and then come here to cave no. 16 to which we readily agreed.

Ellora Caves is also known as Kllooru is located 29 km away
from Aurangabad. These caves were built by the Kannadiga Rashtrakuta Dynasty.

There are not only Buddhist Caves here but also Hindu and
Jain Caves all of which were built in between the 5th century and 10th
century.

When Namrata first told me about Jain Caves, I couldn’t
believe it as I had never heard of Jain Caves before and so thought that she
was pulling a prank on me.

Caves 1 to 12 are Buddhist Caves.

Caves 13 to 29 are Hindu Caves

Caves 30 to 34 are Jain Caves

The Buddhist Caves were built first followed by the Hindu
Caves and later the Jain Caves.

Most of the caves are identical in nature. They had small
doors cut out in the rock that I guess served as rooms to stay. Some had
carvings at the entrance of the caves. Buddha in various meditation poses.

There were many caves which had huge beautifully carved
pillars in them and in the centre there was a rock cut door in which there was a
huge carving of Buddha accompanied by other carvings. The walls of these caves
were carved with both small and huge life size images of Buddha.

Cave no. 10 features Buddha sitting near a Stupa. There are
beautifully carved pillars around the Stupa. The ceiling too is beautifully
carved with carvings near it. This is the first stupa I have come across that
has a Carving of Buddha near it.

Cave no.11 is like a two storey cave carved in the rocks. The
walls of which were carved depicting Buddha in various poses. There were rooms
carved on each of the storeys.

The Hindu Caves had carvings on them depicting various Hindu
mythological figures.

Cave no. 15 The Dashavatara, is a beautifully carved temple
in front of a one storey excavated temple carved in the rock. Again it features
carvings of Hindu mythological.

Cave no. 16 is the best find of them all. I took me to
another world altogether. It’s called the Kaliasanatha. This entire temple is
carved out of one single rock. This temple is beautifully carved.

You have to pay a visit to this place to admire and capture
the beauty of this place on camera.

I just didn’t want to leave the temple premises. Truly a
beautiful masterpiece created out of rock.

The other caves were more or less similar to the caves I had
seen earlier in Ellora.